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The Secret Teachers of the Western World
This epic study unveils the esoteric masters who have covertly impacted the intellectual development of the West, from Pythagoras and Zoroaster to the little-known modern icons Jean Gebser and Schwaller de Lubicz.
Running alongside the mainstream of Western intellectual history there is another current which, in a very real sense, should take pride of place, but which for the last few centuries has occupied a shadowy, inferior position, somewhere underground.
This "other" stream forms the subject of Gary Lachman’s epic history and analysis, The Secret Teachers of the Western World.
In this clarifying, accessible, and fascinating study, the acclaimed historian explores the Western esoteric tradition – a thought movement with ancient roots and modern expressions, which, in a broad sense, regards the cosmos as a living, spiritual, meaningful being and humankind as having a unique obligation and responsibility in it.
The historical roots of our “counter tradition,” as Lachman explores, have their beginning in Alexandria around the time of Christ. It was then that we find the first written accounts of the ancient tradition, which had earlier been passed on orally. Here, in this remarkable city, filled with teachers, philosophers, and mystics from Egypt, Greece, Asia, and other parts of the world, in a multi-cultural, multi-faith, and pluralistic society, a synthesis took place, a creative blending of different ideas and visions, which gave the hidden tradition the eclectic character it retains today.
The history of our esoteric tradition roughly forms three parts:
Part One: After looking back at the earliest roots of the esoteric tradition in ancient Egypt and Greece, the historical narrative opens in Alexandria in the first centuries of the Christian era. Over the following centuries, it traces our “other” tradition through such agents as the Hermeticists; Kabbalists; Gnostics; Neoplatonists; and early Church fathers, among many others. We examine the reemergence of the lost Hermetic books in the Renaissance and their influence on the emerging modern mind.
Part Two begins with the fall of Hermeticism in the late Renaissance and the beginning of “the esoteric counterculture.” In 1614, the same year that the Hermetic teachings fell from grace, a strange document appeared in Kassel, Germany announcing the existence of a mysterious fraternity: the Rosicrucians. Part two charts the impact of the Rosicrucians and the esoteric currents that followed, such as the Romance movement and the European occult revival of the late nineteenth century, including Madame Blavatsky and the opening of the western mind to the wisdom of the East, and the fin-de-siècle occultism of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.
Part Three chronicles the rise of “modern esotericism,” as seen in the influence of Rudolf Steiner, Gurdjieff, Annie Besant, Krishnamurti, Aleister Crowley, R. A Schwaller de Lubicz, and many others. Central is the life and work of C.G. Jung, perhaps the most important figure in the development of modern spirituality. The book looks at the occult revival of the “mystic sixties” and our own New Age, and how this itself has given birth to a more critical, rigorous investigation of the ancient wisdom.
With many detours and dead ends, we now seem to be slowly moving into a watershed. It has become clear that the dominant, left-brain, reductionist view, once so liberating and exciting, has run out of steam, and the promise of that much-sought-after “paradigm change” seems possible. We may be on the brink of a culminating moment of the esoteric intellectual tradition of the West.
Running alongside the mainstream of Western intellectual history there is another current which, in a very real sense, should take pride of place, but which for the last few centuries has occupied a shadowy, inferior position, somewhere underground.
This "other" stream forms the subject of Gary Lachman’s epic history and analysis, The Secret Teachers of the Western World.
In this clarifying, accessible, and fascinating study, the acclaimed historian explores the Western esoteric tradition – a thought movement with ancient roots and modern expressions, which, in a broad sense, regards the cosmos as a living, spiritual, meaningful being and humankind as having a unique obligation and responsibility in it.
The historical roots of our “counter tradition,” as Lachman explores, have their beginning in Alexandria around the time of Christ. It was then that we find the first written accounts of the ancient tradition, which had earlier been passed on orally. Here, in this remarkable city, filled with teachers, philosophers, and mystics from Egypt, Greece, Asia, and other parts of the world, in a multi-cultural, multi-faith, and pluralistic society, a synthesis took place, a creative blending of different ideas and visions, which gave the hidden tradition the eclectic character it retains today.
The history of our esoteric tradition roughly forms three parts:
Part One: After looking back at the earliest roots of the esoteric tradition in ancient Egypt and Greece, the historical narrative opens in Alexandria in the first centuries of the Christian era. Over the following centuries, it traces our “other” tradition through such agents as the Hermeticists; Kabbalists; Gnostics; Neoplatonists; and early Church fathers, among many others. We examine the reemergence of the lost Hermetic books in the Renaissance and their influence on the emerging modern mind.
Part Two begins with the fall of Hermeticism in the late Renaissance and the beginning of “the esoteric counterculture.” In 1614, the same year that the Hermetic teachings fell from grace, a strange document appeared in Kassel, Germany announcing the existence of a mysterious fraternity: the Rosicrucians. Part two charts the impact of the Rosicrucians and the esoteric currents that followed, such as the Romance movement and the European occult revival of the late nineteenth century, including Madame Blavatsky and the opening of the western mind to the wisdom of the East, and the fin-de-siècle occultism of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.
Part Three chronicles the rise of “modern esotericism,” as seen in the influence of Rudolf Steiner, Gurdjieff, Annie Besant, Krishnamurti, Aleister Crowley, R. A Schwaller de Lubicz, and many others. Central is the life and work of C.G. Jung, perhaps the most important figure in the development of modern spirituality. The book looks at the occult revival of the “mystic sixties” and our own New Age, and how this itself has given birth to a more critical, rigorous investigation of the ancient wisdom.
With many detours and dead ends, we now seem to be slowly moving into a watershed. It has become clear that the dominant, left-brain, reductionist view, once so liberating and exciting, has run out of steam, and the promise of that much-sought-after “paradigm change” seems possible. We may be on the brink of a culminating moment of the esoteric intellectual tradition of the West.
528 pages, Paperback
First published October 13, 2015
About the author
Gary Lachman
62 books464 followersGary Lachman is an American writer and musician. Lachman is best known to readers of mysticism and the occult from the numerous articles and books he has published.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
July 19, 2019
Fun, if atypical read.
Enjoy a heady mix of Rust Cole, True Detective Season 1, Dan Brown's Davinci Code and the aunt who keeps trying to sell you crystals.
On a serious note, the book is information rich on a slice of European history oft forgotten. Before science came the alchemists (as Newton himself considered himself first and foremost). Some tried to turn lead into gold, other's sought the alchemical transformation of the soul, of human beings, to higher states of being. The roots of their activities stretch back to ancient Persia, Egypt and Greece.
Much like Goethe and Nietzsche discovering that all we think and read comes from the Persians (Zarathustra), a reading of the progression of European thought leads you to realize you won't reach the current age without a not so easy walk through the arcane, spiritual, mythical knowledge that covered the continent in earlier ages.
Read slowly, with a sense of humour and interest, sipping white port wine and watching occult heavy Hollywood movies and wildly speculative documentaries and see the roots of the 1960's counter culture with its free love, psychedelics and alternative living strategies in the alchemical, occult, alternative thinkers of the past.
If nothing else Jung makes a bit more sense.
Enjoy a heady mix of Rust Cole, True Detective Season 1, Dan Brown's Davinci Code and the aunt who keeps trying to sell you crystals.
On a serious note, the book is information rich on a slice of European history oft forgotten. Before science came the alchemists (as Newton himself considered himself first and foremost). Some tried to turn lead into gold, other's sought the alchemical transformation of the soul, of human beings, to higher states of being. The roots of their activities stretch back to ancient Persia, Egypt and Greece.
Much like Goethe and Nietzsche discovering that all we think and read comes from the Persians (Zarathustra), a reading of the progression of European thought leads you to realize you won't reach the current age without a not so easy walk through the arcane, spiritual, mythical knowledge that covered the continent in earlier ages.
Read slowly, with a sense of humour and interest, sipping white port wine and watching occult heavy Hollywood movies and wildly speculative documentaries and see the roots of the 1960's counter culture with its free love, psychedelics and alternative living strategies in the alchemical, occult, alternative thinkers of the past.
If nothing else Jung makes a bit more sense.
November 27, 2017
Ready for the Big Picture? Lachman isn't suggesting this is a direct lineage, but rather that esoteric practices have continued in the West underground for a very long time. More than this, he deals with the question of the nature of consciousness, and left-brain / right-brain dominance - how does whichever side is "in charge" color our perception of reality and the world around us? There's a lot to dig into and digest here. I found myself reading and re-reading some parts to be sure I grasped what Lachman was relating. It's worth that kind of an in-depth engagement as a reader. I plan to go back to this after a while to re-engage. It's that good.
April 17, 2018
I really wanted to like this book and really did for the most part. There is a lot of information in this book, and it is all fascinating to me. Only I came across a problem when the author was discussing the Fox sisters, who held the first séances in the late 1800's. But one thing the Author did not mention was that the girls later admitted to faking the 'rappings' that were supposed to be the spirits. The lack of this information itself is not horrible as it wasn't really necessary in the context, but it made me put into question if there was any other information that had been left out, possibly on purpose.
April 18, 2018
I really enjoyed this book and wish I had read it (and it had been written) when I was still doing split brain research. It served as an excellent counter argument to Yuval Harari's Homo Sapiens and Homo Deus books. It also helps explain our 2018 ambivalence over "fake news" and disinterest in truth seeking. Lachman might explain this as the right brain overcompensating in its attempt to override the left brain.
I am still not exactly sure what it means to say "practice magick" and as he acknowledges you don't really spread the actual knowledge through writing about it just that there is knowledge that you could acquire.
I am keeping it on my shelves for future reference.
I am still not exactly sure what it means to say "practice magick" and as he acknowledges you don't really spread the actual knowledge through writing about it just that there is knowledge that you could acquire.
I am keeping it on my shelves for future reference.
July 3, 2016
A miracle of a book! It will have you revisiting everything you think you know. Gary Lachman takes what is typically very inaccessible material and makes it easy to understand. And this is as it should be, for revisiting the relationship between consciousness and reality and unravelling our now almost completely reductionist world view is essential if we are to avoid social, ecological and economic armageddon!
Think of it as a crash course in the way humanity is SUPPOSED TO BE vs. the way humanity has been CONDITIONED TO BE to suit an agenda that has served the few. Essential reading!
Think of it as a crash course in the way humanity is SUPPOSED TO BE vs. the way humanity has been CONDITIONED TO BE to suit an agenda that has served the few. Essential reading!
December 22, 2022
"WonderfullyLucid!"
Lachman has a way of saying things about the esoteric (inner gnostic realm) that make it crystal clear and accessible. The main premise here is that in the struggle between our Left and Right brains (a battle the Left is clearly winning but in which the Right will inevitably prevail since it is the master of the two) the esoteric traditions, which stem from a Right Brain vision (holistic, intuitive, imaginative and soft), have suffered greatly at the tougher hands of the popular and dominant rational-logical Left Brain.
This history then is about what has been almost lost, but, ever youthful arises fresh and indomitable; the long and varied line of Western teachers and their teachings that are clearly down but not out (suppressed by the dominion of Christianity from about 500 AD to the 19th century, but now back out in the open although still greatly overshadowed by scientific materialism). Overall, a fascinating even kaleidoscopic survey (full of wonderful references worthy of extended study) of the secret side of Western history made accessible to the more obvious ways of popular culture and mind; great stuff!
Lachman has a way of saying things about the esoteric (inner gnostic realm) that make it crystal clear and accessible. The main premise here is that in the struggle between our Left and Right brains (a battle the Left is clearly winning but in which the Right will inevitably prevail since it is the master of the two) the esoteric traditions, which stem from a Right Brain vision (holistic, intuitive, imaginative and soft), have suffered greatly at the tougher hands of the popular and dominant rational-logical Left Brain.
This history then is about what has been almost lost, but, ever youthful arises fresh and indomitable; the long and varied line of Western teachers and their teachings that are clearly down but not out (suppressed by the dominion of Christianity from about 500 AD to the 19th century, but now back out in the open although still greatly overshadowed by scientific materialism). Overall, a fascinating even kaleidoscopic survey (full of wonderful references worthy of extended study) of the secret side of Western history made accessible to the more obvious ways of popular culture and mind; great stuff!
April 19, 2016
Gary Lachman apparently used to be Blondie's Gary Valentine and wrote their Theosophical hit, "I Am Always Touched By Your Presence." So, apparently his interest in the occult stretches way back. This is the first book of his that I've read. It presents a general overview of esoteric history with the basic premise that there has always been a "right brain mentality" in opposition to an overly analytical, rational "left brain mentality." I suppose it succeeds, but as a general overview of Western esoteric, Hidden Wisdom probably succeeds a little better. Still, if this stuff is unfamiliar, it's not a bad place to start. I think I would rather read his account of New York in the 70's, though.
June 18, 2021
This guy is new to me, but he appears to have been around awhile. I enjoyed this book and am just beginning to read his book on Hermes Trismegistus. He is a fan of Colin Wilson, which gives us something in common. He also appears to be not too airy fairy which usually puts me off much of mystical literature. I'm over in another world right now, trying to give myself a basic education in Formalism, for the sake of understanding its relationship to modern art in the U.S. I know, completely off the subject. Perhaps I'll have more to say about Lachman after I read Hermes T. I hope so.
November 29, 2023
Lachlan goes from the pre-Socratics to the internet age, describing the western thinkers in the realms of mysticism, psychology, hermeticism, religion and anything unorthodox and not mainstream.
He keeps a brisk pace and only dedicates short sections to each person. Was introduced to several figures I wasn’t familiar with. Most valuable part of the book to me is the bibliography which I’ll use to update my reading list.
He keeps a brisk pace and only dedicates short sections to each person. Was introduced to several figures I wasn’t familiar with. Most valuable part of the book to me is the bibliography which I’ll use to update my reading list.
May 26, 2017
I'll give a more thorough reflection on this later on . I really enjoyed reading this .
May 26, 2026
In one sense you could see this book as belonging to the genre of "entertaining, wide-ranging kookery", a survey of bizarre and psychedelic histories of thought and culture, the kind of imaginative, multi-faceted mystery tome that was once the specialty of authors like Graham Hancock, Colin Wilson, or Manly P. Hall. However, that would be doing Gary Lachman a bit of a disservice, as he actually does have a fairly cogent and academically sound argument threading through this funhouse ride of a book.
Lachman's thesis, for better or worse, is built atop that old favorite topic of mystic academics: the idea of the fundamental split between the left and right halves of the human brain. Now, there is a lot of completely valid biological science behind this theory, as initially put forth by one Roger Sperry, who won a Nobel prize for proving that the human brain has specialized functions handled by either the left or the right side. Like most catchy scientific concepts, this quickly become the source for all sorts of loose speculation. Theories arose concerning left or right brained personalities, and even stranger ideas found purchase, for example the fascinating but deeply weird theories of Julian Jaynes, who posited that pre-modern humans had no interior selves, and interpreted their right-brain activity as the voices of the Gods.
Lachman does not go this far into the wilderness, and keeps his theories well-grounded, somewhat in science but even more so in the literature and history of what we call "Western Esotericism", which is kind of a catch-all term for the idea that there's more to the world than what we perceive by default, and that by studying certain techniques one can get a sense of the bigger picture. Hence the arisal of pre-sciences like alchemy and pre-psychologies like ceremonial magic.
Lachman guides the reader though a comprehensive tour of the minds of the heavy hitters of the Western esoteric canon, from Pythagorus and Zoarastor, through the occult Christianity of Augustine and the desert fathers, into the Renaissance underground of Dante, the Templars, Giordano Bruno and Meister Eckhart. At the dawn of the modern world we get Rosicrucians, Roger Bacon, Robert Fludd and Paracelsus. We barrel through the Romantic era with Gurdjieff, Goethe, and Madame Blavatsky, and wind up somewhere in the recent past with Carl Jung, Timothy Leary, and of course the Great Beast himself, Aleister Crowley.
It's quite a romp, and all the while Lachman hews close to his premise: as the needs of civilization forced mankind to hyper-develop its skills in language, mathematics, logic, law, and the other domains of the left brain, our right-side hemispheres began to wither, costing us our intuition, our creativity, and our sense of identification with the spiritual forces of the universe. While most of mankind considered this a fair trade, there remained in every era a handful of thinkers who insisted on retaining the use of their right brains, through ritual, art, and the celebration of mystery and the mystical in all its forms. These were the Secret Teachers, and their wisdom and techniques, passed down through millennia, may be what is required today to save the human race from the death spiral of mechanized thought that has us hell-bent on the destruction of the natural world and the loss of our greatest human values.
Far from being anti-science, Lachman points out a variety of examples of great discoveries that happened due to human intuition, an "a ha" moment, a flash of insight coming from seemingly nowhere... and proposes that such insights are the purview of the right brain, which is always thinking about our problems just as intensely as its left-side counterpart, but along entirely different pathways. The right brain thinks in symbols and images, and it has the ability to synthesize disparate elements into conceptual wholes, while the left-brain can only measure and divide. Both aspects of the mind are equally crucial, but our society has consistently shunned that which can't be captured by a scale or a slide-rule, and the result has been tragedy and disaster, even as our species climbs to ever-greater heights of frenzied domination and exploitation of all that we behold.
I suppose it's obvious that I have a great deal of sympathy for this point of view. Over the last hundred years, Western culture has increasingly found itself lost and reaching out for some other source of understanding, especially after the two massive world wars that punctuated the twentieth century. From bohemian beatniks and hippies to transhuman visionaries and flying saucer devotees, the hunger for release from the left brain's iron grip is everywhere apparent. It is too late for us to restore the balance in our lopsided minds? Lachman ends on a hopeful note, and I'm hopeful as well, especially since the study of these Secret Teachers is no longer shrouded in secrecy and punished by zealotry: the wisdom of the ages is now available to any who would seek it out. An overview like this one, both grounded in fact and open-minded to the unknown, is a great place to start.
Lachman's thesis, for better or worse, is built atop that old favorite topic of mystic academics: the idea of the fundamental split between the left and right halves of the human brain. Now, there is a lot of completely valid biological science behind this theory, as initially put forth by one Roger Sperry, who won a Nobel prize for proving that the human brain has specialized functions handled by either the left or the right side. Like most catchy scientific concepts, this quickly become the source for all sorts of loose speculation. Theories arose concerning left or right brained personalities, and even stranger ideas found purchase, for example the fascinating but deeply weird theories of Julian Jaynes, who posited that pre-modern humans had no interior selves, and interpreted their right-brain activity as the voices of the Gods.
Lachman does not go this far into the wilderness, and keeps his theories well-grounded, somewhat in science but even more so in the literature and history of what we call "Western Esotericism", which is kind of a catch-all term for the idea that there's more to the world than what we perceive by default, and that by studying certain techniques one can get a sense of the bigger picture. Hence the arisal of pre-sciences like alchemy and pre-psychologies like ceremonial magic.
Lachman guides the reader though a comprehensive tour of the minds of the heavy hitters of the Western esoteric canon, from Pythagorus and Zoarastor, through the occult Christianity of Augustine and the desert fathers, into the Renaissance underground of Dante, the Templars, Giordano Bruno and Meister Eckhart. At the dawn of the modern world we get Rosicrucians, Roger Bacon, Robert Fludd and Paracelsus. We barrel through the Romantic era with Gurdjieff, Goethe, and Madame Blavatsky, and wind up somewhere in the recent past with Carl Jung, Timothy Leary, and of course the Great Beast himself, Aleister Crowley.
It's quite a romp, and all the while Lachman hews close to his premise: as the needs of civilization forced mankind to hyper-develop its skills in language, mathematics, logic, law, and the other domains of the left brain, our right-side hemispheres began to wither, costing us our intuition, our creativity, and our sense of identification with the spiritual forces of the universe. While most of mankind considered this a fair trade, there remained in every era a handful of thinkers who insisted on retaining the use of their right brains, through ritual, art, and the celebration of mystery and the mystical in all its forms. These were the Secret Teachers, and their wisdom and techniques, passed down through millennia, may be what is required today to save the human race from the death spiral of mechanized thought that has us hell-bent on the destruction of the natural world and the loss of our greatest human values.
Far from being anti-science, Lachman points out a variety of examples of great discoveries that happened due to human intuition, an "a ha" moment, a flash of insight coming from seemingly nowhere... and proposes that such insights are the purview of the right brain, which is always thinking about our problems just as intensely as its left-side counterpart, but along entirely different pathways. The right brain thinks in symbols and images, and it has the ability to synthesize disparate elements into conceptual wholes, while the left-brain can only measure and divide. Both aspects of the mind are equally crucial, but our society has consistently shunned that which can't be captured by a scale or a slide-rule, and the result has been tragedy and disaster, even as our species climbs to ever-greater heights of frenzied domination and exploitation of all that we behold.
I suppose it's obvious that I have a great deal of sympathy for this point of view. Over the last hundred years, Western culture has increasingly found itself lost and reaching out for some other source of understanding, especially after the two massive world wars that punctuated the twentieth century. From bohemian beatniks and hippies to transhuman visionaries and flying saucer devotees, the hunger for release from the left brain's iron grip is everywhere apparent. It is too late for us to restore the balance in our lopsided minds? Lachman ends on a hopeful note, and I'm hopeful as well, especially since the study of these Secret Teachers is no longer shrouded in secrecy and punished by zealotry: the wisdom of the ages is now available to any who would seek it out. An overview like this one, both grounded in fact and open-minded to the unknown, is a great place to start.
November 8, 2022
The Secret Teachers of the Western World is an exploration of the ideas that have, collectively, come to be known as Western esotericism. It is a survey book that ranges from the teachings of the 6th-century BCE pre-Socratic philosophers to the metaphysics of the New Age movement that grew out of the cultural ferment of the 1960s. It's a fairly long book (460 pages) but, because it covers so much ground, it suffers a bit from the problem most books of this type have: it explains a little about a lot of things but not a lot about anything in particular. It is also a fairly dense book, not in the sense of being obtuse or hard to follow, but rather in the sense of being packed with so much information that the reader is forced to slow down considerably to fully take it all in.
The word "esoteric" means secret, or belonging to the select few. Another word that is often used in the context of Western esotericism is "occult," which means hidden. As Lachman points out, esoteric or occult beliefs can, to some extent, be thought of as rejected ideas, i.e., rejected by mainstream Western religion, philosophy, and science. Thanks to cheap printing and the ubiquity of the Internet, however, there's really nothing "hidden" about these ideas at all anymore. With the click of a key you can order any volume of arcane and occult lore your heart may desire and have it delivered next day, and you would be hard pressed to find a general bookstore today that doesn't carry a selection of tarot cards, astrology guides, and wiccan spell books. As for "rejected," many practices that were borrowed from the East and thought of as esoteric in Western culture -- such as yoga and meditation -- have gained widespread acceptance and respectability. The study of the Western esoteric tradition, as such, has even begun to find academic respectability.
Lachman touches on just about everything that has contributed to Western esoteric thought in the great span of time that the book covers. In his assiduous tracing of the connections between one esotericist and the next, Lachman provides a detailed roadmap for the serious student but perhaps too many byways for the average reader. In Lachman's defense, though, he has written separate, in-depth books about several of the more important figures he touches on lightly here, including Swedenborg, Crowley, Steiner, Blavatsky, and others.
I should mention that Lachman has a spin on esotericism that sets this book apart from a purely straightforward history of Western occult philosophies. He has been greatly influenced by the work of the Scottish researcher Iain McGilchrist, in particular his book The Master and His Emissary. McGilchrist's work centers on our divided brain and how the two hemispheres interpret the world differently. The simplistic model we're all familiar with is that the left hemisphere is analytical, or logical, and the right is wholistic, or intuitive. Lachman believes that much of what characterizes Western esoteric thought is a right-brained approach to understanding the world as opposed to the left-brained approach that characterizes mainstream Western thought. That's a superficial sketch of what Lachman is getting at, but it would be hard to explain further without writing at length. I'll just say, it leads him to some valuable insights that have affected my way of thinking about these topics.
In my mind, I group Gary Lachman with other writers like Mitch Horowitz, Mark Booth, and Richard Smoley who explain esoteric thinkers and occult ideas to a popular audience with a certain degree of objectivity but also of open-mindedness toward their subjects. At nearly five hundred pages, The Secret Teachers of the Western World may be more than you want to read straight through, but it's a useful reference if any of the subjects covered interest you.
The word "esoteric" means secret, or belonging to the select few. Another word that is often used in the context of Western esotericism is "occult," which means hidden. As Lachman points out, esoteric or occult beliefs can, to some extent, be thought of as rejected ideas, i.e., rejected by mainstream Western religion, philosophy, and science. Thanks to cheap printing and the ubiquity of the Internet, however, there's really nothing "hidden" about these ideas at all anymore. With the click of a key you can order any volume of arcane and occult lore your heart may desire and have it delivered next day, and you would be hard pressed to find a general bookstore today that doesn't carry a selection of tarot cards, astrology guides, and wiccan spell books. As for "rejected," many practices that were borrowed from the East and thought of as esoteric in Western culture -- such as yoga and meditation -- have gained widespread acceptance and respectability. The study of the Western esoteric tradition, as such, has even begun to find academic respectability.
Lachman touches on just about everything that has contributed to Western esoteric thought in the great span of time that the book covers. In his assiduous tracing of the connections between one esotericist and the next, Lachman provides a detailed roadmap for the serious student but perhaps too many byways for the average reader. In Lachman's defense, though, he has written separate, in-depth books about several of the more important figures he touches on lightly here, including Swedenborg, Crowley, Steiner, Blavatsky, and others.
I should mention that Lachman has a spin on esotericism that sets this book apart from a purely straightforward history of Western occult philosophies. He has been greatly influenced by the work of the Scottish researcher Iain McGilchrist, in particular his book The Master and His Emissary. McGilchrist's work centers on our divided brain and how the two hemispheres interpret the world differently. The simplistic model we're all familiar with is that the left hemisphere is analytical, or logical, and the right is wholistic, or intuitive. Lachman believes that much of what characterizes Western esoteric thought is a right-brained approach to understanding the world as opposed to the left-brained approach that characterizes mainstream Western thought. That's a superficial sketch of what Lachman is getting at, but it would be hard to explain further without writing at length. I'll just say, it leads him to some valuable insights that have affected my way of thinking about these topics.
In my mind, I group Gary Lachman with other writers like Mitch Horowitz, Mark Booth, and Richard Smoley who explain esoteric thinkers and occult ideas to a popular audience with a certain degree of objectivity but also of open-mindedness toward their subjects. At nearly five hundred pages, The Secret Teachers of the Western World may be more than you want to read straight through, but it's a useful reference if any of the subjects covered interest you.
February 9, 2019
Gary Lachman offers a good survey course over the Western esoteric tradition. Because it is a survey course, there's a lot of people mentioned who have written books that would probably provide more information. I have no way of knowing if his list of authors, philosophers and scientists is truly exhaustive because the "esoteric tradition" is notoriously hard to define; similarly, there's probably more to know about Eastern traditions. This is a survey course, and you will be presented with a lot of general information.
The book begins with a discussion of "right-brain" thinking versus "left-brain" thinking. It does not matter to Lachman whether the investigation of unifying connections specifically occurs within the right hemisphere of the brain, or if the defining and categorizing of subjects specifically occurs in the left hemisphere, his point is that the two modes of consciousness are important to understand. According to Lachman, our ancient ancestors saw the world from a much more "right-brain" point of view, but that over time the "left-brain" of humanity has increasingly invaded our perception of reality. It may be said that the esoteric tradition is the history of "right-brain" ideas that have become more or less popular throughout the ages, and a lot of the book is about how the pendulum has swung from right to left and back.
It strikes me that for a book about "right-brain" ideas, it is written in a peculiarly "left-brain" format. Lachman includes a lot of names, dates and locations, and there is not a lot of storytelling. I think a right-brain oriented person may have difficulty following the specific information, especially when it is not presented in an especially linear way. Then again, the author finishes by saying that the time has come to unify and transcend the two consciousness structures, so in that maybe the book has accomplished it's purpose.
The book begins with a discussion of "right-brain" thinking versus "left-brain" thinking. It does not matter to Lachman whether the investigation of unifying connections specifically occurs within the right hemisphere of the brain, or if the defining and categorizing of subjects specifically occurs in the left hemisphere, his point is that the two modes of consciousness are important to understand. According to Lachman, our ancient ancestors saw the world from a much more "right-brain" point of view, but that over time the "left-brain" of humanity has increasingly invaded our perception of reality. It may be said that the esoteric tradition is the history of "right-brain" ideas that have become more or less popular throughout the ages, and a lot of the book is about how the pendulum has swung from right to left and back.
It strikes me that for a book about "right-brain" ideas, it is written in a peculiarly "left-brain" format. Lachman includes a lot of names, dates and locations, and there is not a lot of storytelling. I think a right-brain oriented person may have difficulty following the specific information, especially when it is not presented in an especially linear way. Then again, the author finishes by saying that the time has come to unify and transcend the two consciousness structures, so in that maybe the book has accomplished it's purpose.
April 15, 2024
My first dive into Western mysticism & esotericism. What a journey! The East has a reputation as the home of more mystical systems which is likely due to its open integration in the main religious traditions there. The West has a broad tradition too, but it had to operate on the fringe. It was forced underground by the combination of Catholicism & the emergence of the empirical sciences. There can be no anomalies or unpredictable parts in a machine. Words like occult, magic, pagan, tarot, astrology etc, are charged with suspicion and assumed to be dangerous. After reading this I can see that those terms don't need to be seen that way. Any practice motivated with the wrong intention can be dangerous, even if it is an approved modality like prayer in the Christian tradition. Gary Lachman is very approachable & I have ordered several other books.
February 8, 2025
An interesting book looking at how the ideas considered occult, gnostic, hermetic and esoteric have affected Western civilisation.
Lachman uses the concept of left brain and right brain thinking modes to show that modernity has stressed left brain thinking, the rational scientific mode, to the point of materialism. It is now going beyond that to postmodernism and the denial of objectivity. It is necessary that we reintegrate both types of thinking and give birth to a new mode of consciousness. The secret teachers, Lachman suggests, have much to teach us about achieving this.
He writes 'As the philosopher Leszek Kolakowski remarked, "It seems as though we live with the feeling of an all-encompassing crisis without being able to identify its causes clearly." ' (p457)
I think that the cause remains unidentified because Man does not dare identify it because it is Man's alienation from the God of the Bible as Paul states in Romans 1:18 - 32.
Lachman uses the concept of left brain and right brain thinking modes to show that modernity has stressed left brain thinking, the rational scientific mode, to the point of materialism. It is now going beyond that to postmodernism and the denial of objectivity. It is necessary that we reintegrate both types of thinking and give birth to a new mode of consciousness. The secret teachers, Lachman suggests, have much to teach us about achieving this.
He writes 'As the philosopher Leszek Kolakowski remarked, "It seems as though we live with the feeling of an all-encompassing crisis without being able to identify its causes clearly." ' (p457)
I think that the cause remains unidentified because Man does not dare identify it because it is Man's alienation from the God of the Bible as Paul states in Romans 1:18 - 32.
December 25, 2025
Lachman takes the reader on a voyage into the shadow side of reality and the teachers who have explored this world outside the physical materialist land that science and convention tell us is all there is. It’s a clear, concise and highly readable account of what is in reality a complex subject, presented in digestible portions that a layman like me can easily process and understand about secret teachers from Ancient Egypt to the modern teachers of the New Age. Take your time when starting this tome...
June 2, 2019
very intruiging history of the esoteric(inward-looking ) traditions. from Platonic idealism to now
experiencing the world intuitively, as if in a dream as interation of symbols is probably the best way to do magic, such is like an autistic savant with numbers.
7 steps from the ground up to cosmic consciousness. those 7 can be broken down even more, I guss they are like Daimons, which is the fragments of our selves. kind of like the chekas
experiencing the world intuitively, as if in a dream as interation of symbols is probably the best way to do magic, such is like an autistic savant with numbers.
7 steps from the ground up to cosmic consciousness. those 7 can be broken down even more, I guss they are like Daimons, which is the fragments of our selves. kind of like the chekas
July 24, 2019
An epic journey in which Iain McGlchrist's
The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World
and our evolution through Jean Gebser's structures of consciousness meet the esoteric.
June 5, 2019
My first book by this author. Definitely going to read his other work--I had to take notes to record all the unusual "teachers" that I'd never heard of--engaging style and thorough background and context of all the amazing people therein.
May 15, 2026
The book is interesting, but it lacks oomph, it somewhat reads like a compilation of wikipedia articles on different people who were in one way or another interested in esotericism.
I think I read 50% of it. It made for a good bedtime reading, precisely because of the mildness of it.
I think I read 50% of it. It made for a good bedtime reading, precisely because of the mildness of it.
January 23, 2018
A strange, fascinating history of the role of esoterics and mystics in Western civilization. Trivia note: Lachman was a founding member of Blondie.
January 3, 2019
Excellent review of the history and development of esoteric thought and philosophy. Added many books to my want to read list!
August 22, 2020
Fascinating read on the history of the western esoteric tradition. A great overview of how different teachers overlap and evolve over time. Learned A LOT and will be going back to review!
January 28, 2021
Fascinating read.
October 27, 2021
Throughoutly researched and interesting even though I noticed a a bit of ideology sliding through a few cracks in the argument.
Want to Read
November 5, 2022fivebooks thread 11/5/22
https://twitter.com/JimHarp18814109/s...
https://twitter.com/JimHarp18814109/s...
July 25, 2023
Great stuff.
Still on the bedside table but more of a reference at this point.
Still on the bedside table but more of a reference at this point.
August 13, 2024
Secret Teachers of The Western had a profound impact on my life. It’s a fascinating and thrilling history.
March 30, 2025
Paviršutiniška, greitai pereina per žinomas asmenybes- nuo Hermetikos iki Blavackojos. Tačiau jeigu domina ezoterika skaityti reikia Slaptoji pasaulio istorija
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